title: Gfi1 and gfi1b repress rag transcription in plasmacytoid dendritic cells in vitro.
abstract: Growth factor independence genes (Gfi1 and Gfi1b) repress recombination activating genes (Rag) transcription in developing B lymphocytes. Because all blood lineages originate from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and different lineage progenitors have been shown to share transcription factor networks prior to cell fate commitment, we hypothesized that GFI family proteins may also play a role in repressing Rag transcription or a global lymphoid transcriptional program in other blood lineages. We tested the level of Rag transcription in various blood cells when Gfi1 and Gfi1b were deleted, and observed an upregulation of Rag expression in plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). Using microarray analysis, we observed that Gfi1 and Gfi1b do not regulate a lymphoid or pDC-specific transcriptional program. This study establishes a role for Gfi1 and Gfi1b in Rag regulation in a non-B lineage cell type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kwan T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Danae
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Sarah M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: McWhirter
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Schlissel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C079873:Gfi1 protein, mouse; C486395:Gfi1b protein, mouse; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C064658:RAG-1 protein